Jewelry by Lauren Pollaro

Lauren Pollaro mixes media for wearable art

By Susan Laughlin

With a fine art degree from UNH, Lauren Pollaro has been creating jewelry for 24 years and more recently larger wall pieces. Both have a similar intent — intriguing compositions of disparate materials. Ideologically, the wall pieces are just an expanded playing field.

Pollaro layers and composes fabric, twigs, painted paper or even objects she has found along the street in a small, intimate scale for her jewelry. She says, “It’s an experimental process. I don’t know where I am going when I start, but the key is to know when to stop.”

Her earrings often start as copper on enamel or stainless steel. From there it is truly mixed media. “I would just as soon set a found object than a precious gemstone,” she says. “Ultimately, I find it more interesting.”

When complete, the earrings have all the drama, texture and design satisfaction of a small painting — indeed, they seem to have a story to tell.

Pollaro has won awards for best in two-dimensional design in the Living with Crafts competition sponsored by the League of NH Craftsmen’s Fair at Sunapee. She will be exhibiting there again this year, August 2-10. Her work was also recently included in the book “Art Jewelry Today 3” by Jeffrey Snyder and is available at several League shops.